The 36-year-old actor - whose father and uncle were professional players for Shamrock Rovers in his native Ireland - always dreamed of following in his relatives' footsteps but had to give it up as he wasn't good enough.

He said: ''I wanted to be a footballer, but I wasn't good enough. Certainly, when I was 13 or 14, I knew for sure that I'd dropped the ball, so to speak.

''I mean, my dad was kicking a punctured tennis ball up against the wall in his back garden from the time he was four, on his own, six hours a day.

''So by the time he was nine, he was like that black-and-white footage of Maradona - he could make that ball speak. The knowledge of the game, it was so deep in the marrow of who he was. I just... didn't want it enough. He always used to say that to me, 'You're not hungry enough,' and he was right. But I was obviously hungry enough to get on a plane to LA.''

The 'Total Recall' star - who became famous in Hollywood after appearing in UK TV show 'Ballykissangel' - initially found life in America tough due to the demanding work schedule and he says he was left ''disillusioned'' and ''lonely.''

He said: ''For three weeks, I was doing six meetings a day with producers and directors; it was overwhelming, because I was only 22. When I got home, I was so disillusioned. LA can be a very very lonely town.''